CENTRE-left leader Romano Prodi has claimed a knife-edge victory in Italy's general election, but Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's allies dispute the result and are demanding a "scrupulous" check of the count. Twelve hours after polling stations closed, Mr Prodi declared his broad coalition had secured a majority in both houses of parliament and promised to unify Italy after a divisive, acrimonious election campaign. "We have won," he told flag-waving supporters who had waited until the early hours in a Rome square as the count ebbed and flowed in the closest election in modern Italian history. The centre-left said it was...